Judicious January Jangling & Juggling *blows budgeteering bugle*

[claretandamberforever]

Sorry, couldn't resist going overboard on the J's

Happy new year y'all. Welcome to expert budgeteerers, newbies, lurkers and de-lurkers. We're a very friendly, non-judgmental bunch so please use this thread as you choose whether it's as a spending diary, to confess your money sins, ask for help or have a general whinge at the cost of living.....

Oh god I still get refused alcohol so not old

Our draught excluders are the brush type that fit on the bottom of the door..doesn't work when dh leaves doors open

www.diy.com/nav/build/insulation/draught-excluders/base_of_door_seals/Stormguard-Premium-Door-Brush-Seal-Chrome-Effect-10908016?skuId=11398712 I bought these, I got 3% on tcb. It all adds up.

Ok.

Ohhelp I use Collect+ a lot, it's usually the cheapest for the bigger parcels that Royal Mail want to charge a small fortune for. You also made me with the Fluffy matriarch image, suffice to say I had a similar thought...

NK5BM3 As you're already slim (I'm guessing, at size 8!) then to tackle any belly issues it will probably be more exercise than diet that helps not an expert, but used to be fit!. Have you looked into doing the 30 Day Shred? I think you can find some or all of it on YouTube, but the DVD was only about £5 on Amazon last time I checked. I know of quite a few mums who have used it specifically to tackle the post-baby paunch and it has had a really positive impact. You can divide up the levels and exercises, I think it's something like 30mins on each day that you do it, and you can decide to do it all in one go, or more commonly something like Mon-Fri with weekends off, or 1 day on 1 day off. Depending on how fit you already are, some people get a lot of results just doing the first or second level and just stick with that for a bit (there are three levels in total).

NSD today, and got a free meal! (well, friends made us lunch). Still got at least 2 dinners' worth in the house, plus bread, eggs, cereal and other extras in the fridge, freezer and cupboard. Need to go grocery shopping on Thursday - finally going back to work tomorrow

Lots of NSDs, well done everyone! I am settling for making-more-than-I-spend days at the moment, after a few spendy days being more or less cancelled out by a few good working days (am self employed, so more work = more dosh).

Not looking forward to my mobile phone bill this month - no internet for at least 10 days which will mean inevitably going over my download allowance as am running all work emails etc from my phone.

I have a big bag of stuff to eBay that I put all in one place as we packed up the house, so will try to get that listed this weekend or next week. Need to get tax return out the way first though.

Oh, and the other good news from te move is that new house seems to be v efficient to heat, so hopefully fuel bills might drop a bit.

Delasi - thanks! And doh!! I absolutely don't do exercise, I could I suppose do the school walk with ds. I usually drive dd to nursery then to work (Dd's nursery not walkable). But ds' school is under a mile from home (and dh usually does that) and then from his school it's another mile to my work! Will have to work out something. The shred looks scary and sounds scary!

I used to do a lot of exercise when I was younger. I played tennis at least twice a week and swam 1-2x a week too. When I was even younger I was going to be on the swim team and my mum pulled me off. Sigh...

Sorry to have not replied about rice pudding, been rather busy.

My recipe was 6oz pudding rice, 1.5 pints skimmed milk, 1.5 pints water, 4 tablespoons splenda (or similar sweetener) and a lot of grated nutmeg. Had it on high for about 3 hours, stirred once. It is delicious

Spent £24.52 today on some salad bits, ham, fruit, bread rolls to go with homemade soup from freezer tomorrow, and some pyrex storage dishes.

My 'diet' is working as I've lost 6 lbs since NY Day, so I'm happy with that

NSD :)

Hmmm. Ordered tesco for tomorrow, it's over £80 so hopefully it's not all gone within a week! We are entertaining on Friday and all the ingredients for fajitas really add up.

Definitely need to get better at cheap meal planning. Especially meat free. Sadly the DCs don't like soup!

fuzzpig what do you use for the fajitas? Are there cheaper, acceptable alternatives? also wraps are fab and great value.

dh and I are trying to finish jobs around the house that we have all or most of the stuff for, so minimal spending Hopefully finishing the jobs will cheer us up at low cost. I have a pair of ceiling to floor curtains to create which will hopefully look good and keep some draughts out.

Try veggie fajitas, Fuzz, either with fried mushroom, pepper, onion and Quorn strips or refried or kidney beans. Yum!

Should've read aldi wraps not also damn autocorrect

Have got value wraps from tesco :) (no aldi here)

btw aldi kept changing to also for me too :o

Got a bag of frozen chicken breasts to try, as cheaper than fresh, must remember to defrost on time!

Apart from that it's just peppers, cheese, avocado etc so nothing spectacularly pricy just more elements/ingredients than most meals so it seems a lot!

We have a few simple cheap meals like jacket spuds, pasta etc. Frozen fish is quite good too, DH did a really nice cream cheese and broccoli sauce with some today and we all loved it.

I have to admit though it's the first time in ages I've actually really noticed the cost of everything rather than just getting what I want.

I have been exhausted this week (and yet still can't sleep ) so that's not really helping with the planning and having the energy to try new things!

Off to try and sleep again now!

£130 in the súpermarket, included a few day's worth of food for dogs and lot's of ice-cream. It was 38 degrees C Today and Due To Get hotter .

DH Spent £25 on movie tickets and pop corn. We saw Frozen, oh the irónica of going out purely for the air con and watching a film about the Ice Queen.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is DD's blood test, no idea yet of cost.

NSD yesterday, am off to Home Bargains at lunchtime so will try to restrain myself............

Does everyone know about Amazon Cloud? If you buy a CD from Amazon you get the mp3 free but if you have bought CDs from Amazon in the past, you can get MP3s of them free too!

I registered and got some really random ones because I only tend to buy music for other people but still - free is free : )

Feeling really anxious about cashflow at the moment. I'm working on two proposals that may or may not result in some decent well paid work in the future and trying to fit paid work in too and it's all getting a bit scary.

It's DS's birthday soon so am watching eBay like a hawk to try to get what he wants second hand.

freelance cashflow is a constant stress for me too - trying to balance the need to earn money right now with the need to lay the foundations for future work/business growth.

Store cupboard lunch (super noodles - how did they get in there?! ) and freezer supper (macaroni cheese leftover from Christmas period cooking) so cheap food day.

ilovepicnmix

I didn't know you could get the halifax money twice, I could switch the joint account over.

. I have paid Feb nursery bill, joined my professional body, and need to start saving for three training courses to keep up-to-date, and a laptop (probably a flashy one) before this one dies. I will get paid within 60 days of when I submit my invoice for work I should finish before the end of Jan .

No spends yet (or groceries!) but probably about a £5 spend later on some stationery and milk.

On the lookout for decent cash back offer for a mobile upgrade. Got £100 a couple of months ago for mine and now DH's is eligible for upgrade - £60 currently the best I can find, which is very good, but holding out a little in case more will come up!

possibly last night we had cheese sauce that was left over from Christmas day, added some wholegrain mustard and macaroni and topped with breadcrumbs made from garlic bread leftover from new year's eve. It turned out fine. And we always have a packet of super noodles hidden somewhere. They're dh's dirty secret and remind him of his student days.

My freezer is very nearly empty and so are my cupboards. It's been great for keeping costs down after Christmas. It's also helped me think 'if we're not eating xxx now we never will' (only one thing, thankfully). However, the problem is I've had to buy loads this month. I've done an online shop, £180 . I do shop monthly as saves delivery charges so I'll only need milk and fruit and may be the odd bit of veg as we largely eat carrots as they keep well and frozen veg but this still seems a lot to me.

frugal we love veg fajitas but these days I would consider them expensive. Peppers are often getting on for £1 each so we have frozen ones, roughly £1 for 500g. Avocados, even value ones, are dear and cheese always seems expensive because we're vegetarian and have organic dairy. Compared to tinned chickpeas it is!

For feeding a crowd chili/curry and rice is cheap and well received. To make chili more exciting serve with a bit of sour cream and value tortilla crisps. With the curry make your own garlic and coriander naans, they add a cheap 'wow factor'.

Managed to keep Home Bargains down to £2.08 for 3 boxes of cereal bars, that's DDs school snacks sorted for the rest of the month.

FFS. £87 on tesco delivery and we forgot the sodding MILK! and I forgot my snack for break as I woke up so late so had to go via boots for a cereal bar (resisted temptation to get a whole meal deal) so that's another little bit onto the food spends.

Yes, fajitas are expensive! We used to have them a lot but I realised there was no point when it's just the four of us, as the DCs don't eat much so some would always get wasted. So it's a rare treat and since my friend is visiting it seems a good opportunity! Will definitely rethink next time though.

I've borrowed Save With Jamie today... I've not heard entirely positive things about his idea of 'low budget' but I'm going in with an open mind!

More cooking is going to be key for me. I find it exhausting though since I got ill. I used to love it but I can't manage much now :(

£1.14 on milk.